God of War 3 is an epic roller coaster ride, and prime example of what all video games should aspire to be. God of War 3 presentation is on par with blockbuster movies, and is a prime example of what videos should be.

God of War 3 keeps the formula that made the previous 2 games in the series successes. However, it evolves and expands upon those concepts so perfectly that it makes the other games feel as dated as they are.

The first major overhaul has been to the gameplay. The gameplay is fundamentally the same as God of War 2, however, additional moves like the the grabbing ram, and grappling with the chains of exile, and real time weapon switching make the combat so effortless that you forget that you're only using two buttons to attack. I've always felt that linearity and combat were God of War's weakest points, but Sony Santa Monica has done an excellent job turning those weakness around. The combat system has turned from being good enough into high quality gameplay. The new weapons and tools you obtain along the journey are all extremely useful, and combined with the items Kratos keeps from God of War 2 and a new magic meter specifically for items, God of War 3 can now comfortably compete with the other big games in the genre in terms of gameplay.

Speaking of linearity, God of War 3 doesn't change that formula. However, the game hides it very well. The entire game takes place on Mount Olympus, but this mountain has tons of nooks and crannies. You go from the top of the mountain to the pits of Hades, up through the mountain innards, to Poseidon's lair, through the mountains, into the realm of the Olympians, down to Tartarus, and more. And the game hides it's linearity by bridging each area together as if they're truly connected.

Another thing improved upon is the camera. The camera provide the most dynamic image available for every scene in the game. When you're scaling the mountain it zooms in on you, before panning out and letting you see just how far you've come. When you go in for the kill it zooms in letting blood splatter spray everywhere. The camera is like a character itself aiding Kratos show off his talents. The QTE's have also been revamped by having the button press appear in the sides of the screen as they're laid out on the controller. The makes it easy to perform the QTE's without missing any of the action on screen.

Finally Puzzles and Platforming are given more face time this go round, and both section are done well like every other part of the game.

Graphically God of War is a stunner. It's easily one of the Top 5 best looking games this gen. Highlights include the boss battles. Each one seems like a choreographed scene from a movie. The character models are also amazingly detailed especially the titans, but even common enemies vary from one another which is not seen in many games. Another thing to note is that while God of War 3 is aesthetically beautiful it's also a technical masterpiece. The game runs at 1080p at 60 fps. But that frame rate varies between 30 and 60 fps, however, the frame rate is never a problem because the drop occurs at times when it's never noticed. How SSM (Sony Santa Monica) did this I don't know, but they need to teach this technique to other devs. There's not enough that can be said about God of War 3's visuals so just play the game and see for yourself.

God of War has always had great audio and part 3 is no exception. As always TC Carlson ("Living Single", "Final Destination 2", and now a Macy's commercial) does an excellent job as Kratos, but everyone in this game is voiced well. And the music does an excellent job of moving the game along as well.

God of War 3 is an perfectly paced game, that unfortunately feels shorter than what it is simply because you don't want it to end. The game is around 10 - 12 hours long, and afterwards you can take on the Challenge of Olympus or replay the game uses the powers from the urns and items you've unlocked. So that's it, then end of the trilogy and how the series ends. It's been a great ride, but everything must come to an end sooner or later, and God of War is leaving on a high note. God of War 3 along with the franchise will go down as one of the best of all time.

Score

10.0

Graphics

The PS3 does it again. Overall God of War 3 is a great looking game, but when you thrown in moments like fighting on titans, and the details in Kratos and some of the bosses character models your eyes will see one of the best looking ever.

9.0

Sound

God of War has always had great voice acting, and music and God of War 3 doesn't change that formula.

9.0

Gameplay

I've always thought God of War's gameplay was it's weakest point. It's good, really good, but not on par with the competition. God of War 3 corrects that. Fundamentally it's the same as the previous games, but the tweaks and additions bring it up to the competitions standards.

9.0

Fun Factor

God of War 3 is a roller coaster ride, that you never want to end. Everything about this game is epic. Those who have been with our anti-hero will be pleased with God of War 3 in every way, until the ride ends.

After the massive boss fights with Poseidon, Hades, and Cronus, I was kind of disappointed in the "mortal sized" battle with Zeus. It also felt more like a 2d fighter game than a 3D action game like the rest of the game.

IMHO, Zeus should have been a very long battle with Kratos having to use a lot of terrain and similar elements to take him out. It just wasn't a massive ending like I expected. That was alongside the fact that his revenge ended up just leaving a bad taste in my mouth.

Thanks everyone, I haven't posted a review in a long time so I picked one of my favorite games to review. I thought the fight with Zeus was fine, it wasn't the best, but the whole wrap up to the story was weird.

If you ddidn't like the ending of God Of War III, it's probably because you don't understand it. I would've like to see Kratos live but that's not what Kratos wanted. I never fully understood it either until I read this: http://www.ps3trophies.com/... Here's the part explaining why the ending was actually a good thing.

That ending sucked right? Wrong. Those last few seconds were the climax of the whole three games. The ending was actually happy. Here’s why.

Kratos succeeded. The gods were dead. The reign of Olympus was over. Why is this good? He took down supreme rulers. He got rid of the omnipotent, the ones you could never escape from. While they usually did good, he freed the world from their rule. The people were free from their whims. Now, not only did he destroy the gods, but he put the power into the peoples hands when he released all that energy in his death. When the chaos settled, a new world would be able to form, one free of the gods. Another important aspect of the whole power balance part is that he did not hand it over to Athena. If he had handed it over to Athena, the power would have still been in the hands of an omnipotent figure, a higher being. EDIT: I just started a new play through and noticed that when you first talk to dead Athena, she says "While Zeus lives, there is no hope for mankind." I found this as another connection to the end, where he releases the "hope" unto mankind, now that Zeus is dead. Thought that was cool.

The most important part of the ending though, is that Kratos died. After so many years of suffering (a little more than 20, if my math is correct…) he is finally able to rest. He has forgiven himself, he has freed the world of the Chains of Olympus, and has created a new world, in which the power is rightfully in the hands of the people. And now, he will rest in peace and be with his family.

If you need someone to explain this to you then the writing in the ending was bad period. And as the person said this is their hypothesis.

The ending wasn't done as good as the other aspects of the game. It's still one of the best games, it just had a weird ending. They should have stuck with Jaffe's idea of Kratos reign introducing Norse/Roman mythology, that way we could have potentially had more games :)

how could kratos possibly have been so compassionate and doing all this for the sake of the humans when in eVERY GOW3 level you can cut up humans and in one level you have to smash a guys face into a wall to continue moving?!?!?